Crunchyroll to Stream ‘Fruits Basket’ Season 2 to its Anime Spring Lineup

Crunchyroll has announced on Friday on its website that they have officially added Fruits Basket season 2 on its 2020 spring anime line up. The anime is scheduled to be released on the site on April 6 at 10am Pacific.

The following territories are able to access and stream the anime in Crunchyroll’s website: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The website already released a trailer which you can watch here (or go through below at the end of the article).

It was announced in 2018 on the official website of Hana to Yume magazine that this year’s 24th issue of the magazine confirms a new anime adaptation of the popular Fruits Basket manga created by Natsuki Takaya. The text in the announcement image in the magazine says “Zenpen”, meaning “the entire story”.

The Fruits Basket manga series was released in the magazine back in 1998 and ended in 2006. It was released in English by Tokyopop and was re-released in 12 omnibus volumes by Yen Press in 2016.

The story centers on an ordinary high school girl named Tohru Honda who was forced to move out after a tragedy in the family and had no choice but to live in a tent. Little did she know that she actually stepped into the land owned by the Sohma clan. After she was offered to stay at their residence, she found out the Sohma’s family secret of turning themselves into animals based on their Chinese Zodiac when touched by the opposite sex.

The second season will feature a returning cast. Two new characters have been previously announced: Takuya Eguchi (Takeo Gouda in My Love Story!) will be playing Kakeru Manabe, who will serve as the student council vice-president (minor spoilers ahead) during Yuki’s term as president. Ai Kakuma (Isuzu Sento from Amagi Brilliant Park) will be playing Machi Kuragi, Kakeru’s half-sibling and the student council treasurer. For the English dub, Aaron Dismuke will be voicing Kakeru while Caitlin Glass will be Machi.

To refresh your memory, here are the names of the Japanese cast:

Tohru Honda VA: Manaka Iwami (Teresa Wagner in Tada-Kun Never Falls in Love)
Yuki Soma VA: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Haruka Nanase in Free!)
Kyo Soma VA: Yuma Uchida (Ash Lynx in Banana Fish)
Shigure Soma VA: Yuichi Nakamura (Tetsurou Kuroo from Haikyuu!!)
Arisa Uotani VA: Atsumi Tanezaki (Chise Hatori in Ancient Magus Bride)
Saki Hanajima VA: Satomi Sato (Tsumugi Takanashi in IDOLiSH7)
Kagura Soma VA: Rie Kugimiya (Taiga Aisaka in Toradora!)
Momiji Soma VA: Megumi Han (Atsuko “Akko” Kagari in Little Witch Academia)
Hatsuharu Soma VA: Makoto Furukawa (Saitama in One Punch Man)
Hatori Soma VA: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Banri Ogami in IDOLiSH7)
Ayame Soma VA: Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku Kururugi in Code Geass)
Akito Soma VA: Maaya Sakamoto (Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club)

Funimation previously published a comment from the manga’s creator Natsuki Takaya. Below is an excerpt of her commentary:

I never once felt negatively about the project or thought that I didn’t want to do it, but still, my first thought was “What?!” (lol)

So, I made several requests right off the bat.

One of those was to do it with a completely new team.

Completely new. Every single person.

I told [the producers], if you want to open the curtain again, then please make it all new. Please rebuild the Furuba world from scratch, with new everything.

Another request was to not make the art look too much like my art.

This was partly because my Furuba art is old now, pure and simple, and also largely because I was in poor health back then (you can find more details about that in the afterword to the Collector’s Edition, if you’re curious), so my drawing was awfully shaky. Because of that, I wanted them to rebuild the art as well.

Other than that… Well, it was a mix. On some things I gave them detailed thoughts, and on others I gave them my blessing to do as they liked.

The production staff promptly accepted my requests and worked to meet them, and I’m truly grateful to them all. Thank you again.

They also readily gave me permission to visit the recording sessions sometimes, which makes me so happy. I don’t actually do anything there; I’m just an observer. (Really, I don’t do anything.)

It’s a pure delight, getting to see the reels a little early like that.

We are looking forward to upcoming season 2 of this well-loved anime!

Source: Crunchyroll News (with some info credits from Raven)